about us

In the beginning, there was no lump of gold but just a simple handmade game. Quite the opposite of the fairy tale's story (Hans in Luck), Hans im Glück is constantly on course for further success. Since the first "Essener Spielertage" in 1983 –with the game DODGE CITY– games of the Munich publisher have been establishing themselves in the game scene and are now appreciated, acknowledged and awarded. This is something Bernd Brunnhofer and Karl-Heinz Schmiel would never have dreamt of when they hurled themselves into the adventure game publishing in their garage.

In 1986, with GREYHOUNDS the publisher created a sensation among a larger audience for the first time, when the game was nominated for the "Spiel des Jahres" award. One year later, when Karl Heinz Schmiel decided to concentrate on his job as a pedagogue the work at Hans im Glück became a fulltime job for Bernd Brunnhofer. Screen printed games belonged to the past as the quality of the games improved competing with the standard of other publishers. Having received the "Goldenen Pöppel" award in 1990 with MAESTRO, Hans im Glück received – with DRUNTER & DRÜBER (by Klaus Teuber)– the "Spiel des Jahres" (game of the year) award in 1991. As the demand for Hans im Glück games was on the rise, Volker Weitzel joined the publisher as an editor and public relations manager.

In 1994 MANHATTAN (by Andreas "Leo" Seyfarth) received the next game of the year award and only 2 years later again a Hans im Glück game was honored with the same award - this time EL GRANDE (by Wolfgang Kramer and Richard Ulrich), which is an all-time classic among passionate gamers.

In 1998 Dirk Geilenkeuser joined the publisher in order to help Volker Weitzel with office work. In 2000 Volker Weitzel decided to leave the publisher and again only two people tried to run the business. However, in 2001 Hans im Glück went viral with the biggest success in its history. More than 700.000 copies of CARCASSONE (by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede) - game of the year 2001- were sold within the first year in Germany. Meanwhile, the game has been translated into more than twenty languages and several million copies of the game have been sold worldwide.

Since 2002 Georg (Schorsch) Wild has been working for Hans im Glück. He is responsible for layout, game design and boxes and has – amongst many other projects – helped developing the game of the year 2006 THURN UND TAXIS (by Karen and Andreas Seyfarth).

In 2008 Moritz Brunnhofer joined the publisher. After having done an internship he took care of important tasks founding the Carcassone & Co. online-shop and in 2017 he took over the management of Hans im Glück.

Jasmin Weigand and Michael Fronia joined the team in 2012. Michael managed the communication with the authors while Jasmin supported – and she still does – Schorsch with his work (Data and Layout). Both of them were also involved in editing. Jasmin also showed her talent by laying out STONE AGE JUNIOR – children's game of the year 2016 –.

Our newest colleagues are Johannes Natterer (2016) and Freddy Diebold (2017). After Michael left the staff in 2016 Johannes has taken over his tasks in editing and communication. Freddy takes care of data concerning our partners in other countries and is also one of the main creators of this website.

Last but not least we want to mention all of our test players, in particular, one person: Dieter Hornung. He has accompanied Hans im Glück from day one and has influenced the development of our games with his numerous ideas. One of the secrets to Hans im Glück's success is certainly the weekly test session in Dieter's tiny basement, which is full of games. To bring Hans im Glück full circle, Karl-Heinz Schmiel, Hans im Glück's co-founder, is now part of the test-team meeting every other day to develop game ideas. Moreover, Klaus Knechtskern and Gregor Abraham are a part of our test-team who enrich our idea generation.